Thursday, January 23, 2014

While my East Coast peeps are freezing their booties off in the aftermath of Winter Storm Janus (when did we start naming storms that didn't have the potential to turn into hurricanes?), we've actually had a relatively mild January so far. It snowed a few inches last night and is very cold today, but it's going to be 60F tomorrow, so it's hard to complain. We've had some good ski days, and Zeke can now ski with us, so I've had a blast taking him up on the slopes. He hoots and hollers and sings to himself and shakes his butt because he's so happy.

But I'm still thinking about the beach.

We are going to Nicaragua for the kids' spring break, and we finished making the final arrangements a couple of weeks ago (car rental, passport applications, that sort of thing). We'll be in a house right on the beach, plus the house has a pool, so there will be swimming and sunning and surfing and sightseeing. The little town we'll be in, San Juan del Sur, isn't too far from Lake Nicaragua, which is this ginormous lake that has sharks. Apparently the sharks are aggressive, so no one swims in the lake (I won't be telling Zeke about this, because then I'll be fielding non-stop questions about whether the sharks will come into the pool or house*).

I seriously cannot wait (for the beach, not for questions about fresh-water sharks making it into the house). It is so nice to have days that are unstructured, but which naturally fall into a lovely, gentle rhythm of leisurely meals and sitting on the beach and swimming and surfing and reading books and relaxing.

And J and I will be ready. We have been doing P90X3 with a challenge group - we are only in week 3 and folks are already losing pounds and inches. One challenger lost 8 pounds the first week, and reports that her clothes are loser and she's feeling leaner and firmer. Others are reporting gains in strength and flexibility and energy. As for me, I've been eating really well (doing "slow carb," which works for me better than anything else) and sticking to the workouts, and while I don't know what I weigh (our scale's batteries died and I never bothered to replace them), I've been taking measurements and I'm already down an inch in my waist and my pants are much looser than they were three weeks ago.

Plus, it's hard to argue with 30 minute workouts. As with Focus T25 (the last program I did, which features 25 minute workouts), even when you really don't feel like working out, you think, "it's only 25 or 30 minutes, suck it up and start and it'll be over before you know it." And they're actually fun, so once you get going, it's great (and then it's over). If you want to hear more about the programs or the challenge group format (I've got new ones starting every month), let me know. You won't be sorry.

Aaaanyway... the beach. We go in late March for a week, and then April will be hectic between my brother Sam's wedding and a big conference at work, and then it's May and I've got another India reunion and then a legal conference in Florida and then it's the end of school and summer starts and we'll do some camping and hiking and then it's July and we go to the beach again for our annual family trip.

Beach trips are the best. My kids have the best time -- they are so happy and they spend all day getting sun and exercise and playing until they collapse from happy exhaustion. And the adults have the best time as well. Just hanging out and having fun with no sense of urgency. It's totally rejuvenating.

From last year's July beach trip to New Hampshire. the end of a long, happy day.

In the dead of winter, it's so important to have breaks planned. Particularly if those breaks are at the beach.

*Seriously, it never ends. Last night the kids decided to sleep in their sleeping bags in the playroom/workout room, but only made it about 30 minutes before climbing into my bed because they heard noises and naturally, assumed it was dinosaurs.